Asphyxia and trauma, as causes of avalanche death, may increase. It is unlikely that SAR and health care providers involved in avalanche rescue will have to change their strategies in areas where they are already established. The effects of climate change might foster the expansion of mitigation strategies and the establishment of mountain rescue services in areas subject to increased avalanche hazards caused by changes in snow cover and land use.Bisphenol-A (BPA) is an endocrine disruptor associated with higher risk of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases especially in susceptible populations. Because malnutrition is a nutritional disorder associated with high cardiovascular risk, we sought to compare the effects of short-term BPA exposure on cardiovascular parameters of healthy and protein-malnourished mice. Postweaned male mice were fed a normo- (control) or low-protein (LP) diet for 8 weeks and then exposed or not to BPA (50 μg kg-1 day-1) for the last 9 days. Systolic blood pressure was higher in BPA or LP groups compared with the control group. However, diastolic blood pressure was enhanced by BPA only in malnourished mice. Left ventricle (LV) end diastolic pressure (EDP), collagen deposition, and CTGF mRNA expression were higher in the control or malnourished mice exposed to BPA than in the respective nonexposed groups. Nevertheless, mice fed LP diet exposed to BPA exhibited higher angiotensinogen and cardiac TGF-β1 mRNA expression than mice treated with LP or BPA alone. Walllumen ratio and cross-sectional area of intramyocardial arteries were higher either in the LP or BPA group compared with the control mice. Taken together, our data suggest that short-term BPA exposure results in LV diastolic dysfunction and fibrosis, and intramyocardial arteries inward remodeling, besides potentiate protein malnutrition-induced hypertension and cardiovascular risk.Objectives Identifying simple biomarkers to determine muscle atrophy in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients remains a critical research gap. Since creatinine is mainly a product from intramuscular creatine metabolism, we tested the hypothesis that low serum creatinine levels would be associated to skeletal muscle atrophy in NSCLC patients. Materials and Methods This is a prospective cohort study including 106 treatment-naive patients with histologically confirmed stage IV NSCLC. All patients performed routine serum creatinine laboratory tests. We divided patients into two groups based on low ( less then 0.7 mg/dL for male and less then 0.5 mg/dL for female) or normal creatinine levels. We compared body mass index (BMI), psoas muscle cross-sectional area, adipose tissue area and complete blood counts between groups. Results Male and female NSCLC patients with low serum creatinine levels had low muscle cross-sectional area as compared to patients with normal serum creatinine levels. Male NSCLC patients with low serum creatinine also displayed reduced BMI, reduced adipose tissue area, and elevated systemic inflammation compared to NSCLC patients with normal serum creatinine levels. There were no significant differences between female groups for BMI, adipose tissue area and inflammatory markers. Conclusions Serum creatinine is a potential prognostic biomarker of skeletal muscle atrophy in NSCLC patients. Since serum creatinine is a simple and accessible measurement, we suggest that it should be monitored in longitudinal follow-up of NSCLC patients as a biomarker of muscle atrophy.Background A computational proteomic analysis suggested that SARS-CoV-2 might bind to hemoglobin (Hb). The authors hypothesized that this phenomenon could result in a decreased oxygen (O2) binding and lead to hemolytic anemia as well. The aim of this work was to investigate whether the affinity of Hb for O2 was altered during COVID-19. Methods In this retrospective, observational, single-center study, the blood gas analyses of 100 COVID-19 patients were compared to those of 100 non-COVID-19 patients. Fifty-five patients with carboxyhemoglobin (HbCO) ?8% and 30 with sickle cell disease (SCD) were also included ("positive controls" with abnormal Hb affinity). P50 was corrected for body temperature, pH, and PCO2. Results Patients did not differ statistically for age or sex ratio in COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 groups. Median P50 at baseline was 26 mmHg [25.2-26.8] vs. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/molidustat-(bay85-3934).html 25.9 mmHg [24-27.3], respectively (p = 0.42). As expected, P50 was 22.5 mmHg [21.6-23.8] in the high HbCO group and 29.3 mmHg [27-31.5] in the SCD group (p less then 0.0001). Whatever the disease severity, samples from COVID-19 to non-COVID-19 groups were distributed on the standard O2-Hb dissociation curve. When considering the time-course of P50 between days 1 and 18 in both groups, no significant difference was observed. Median Hb concentration at baseline was 14 g.dl-1 [12.6-15.2] in the COVID-19 group vs. 13.2 g.dl-1 [11.4-14.7] in the non-COVID-19 group (p = 0.006). Among the 24 COVID-19 patients displaying anemia, none of them exhibited obvious biological hemolysis. Conclusion There was no biological argument to support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 could alter O2 binding to Hb.Cardiac magnetic resonance myocardial perfusion imaging can detect coronary artery disease and is an alternative to single-photon emission computed tomography or positron emission tomography. However, the complex, non-linear MR signal and the lack of robust quantification of myocardial blood flow have hindered its widespread clinical application thus far. Recently, a new Bayesian approach was developed for brain imaging and evaluation of perfusion indexes (Kudo et al., 2014). In addition to providing accurate perfusion measurements, this probabilistic approach appears more robust than previous approaches, particularly due to its insensitivity to bolus arrival delays. We assessed the performance of this approach against a well-known and commonly deployed model-independent method based on the Fermi function for cardiac magnetic resonance myocardial perfusion imaging. The methods were first evaluated for accuracy and precision using a digital phantom to test them against the ground truth; next, they were applied in a group of coronary artery disease patients.